will I get my apprentice back?

[Dogtown1]

in the description it sounds like my apprentice will be taken away, but will return changed somehow
?

[Dogtown1]

I just bought the dlc .... I cant tell that much difference, other than some demon lord just ran off with my high end apprentice and all her gear

o_0

[Kaysoky]

So you got the Sa'Hrul Demon lord event, and then waited 60 turns without reacting?

Then yes, the apprentice is gone for good.

[Dogtown1]

I did try to take out that giant demon.... but he was impossible to defeat
I had no idea there was a clock
so its you lose a apprentice in combat, or lose one when the clock runs out
.... wish I had skipped this dlc

its this dumb super demon clock thing and the weird pentagram floating over all the resources making it hard to allow your apprentices to move lodges to new areas to keep up your economy.... gonna turn this dlc off

[sarouman]

This event is really good. There's a consequence to ignoring it, even though it's obviously not very clear. But on the other hand, isn't it logical not to know in advance the outcome of the choices we have to make? We've become too used to knowing everything, and that's not logical. I mean, we get screwed the first time, but that doesn't stop us from continuing the game and winning, and the next time, it's easy to eliminate him every time because he's the weakest of the demons.

[Kaysoky]

This game is already nudging the player into a race against the clock. It just came in the form of steadily declining relations with the 4 Circle Mages and the steadily increasing power of the neutral stacks in the world.

The Demon Lords add more of these nudges. Sa'Hrul is merely very explicit about this. Other Demon Lords nudge the player by making their surroundings worth 50% less, so you are heavily incentivized towards completing those quests. It helps that completing these quests gives you excellent rewards in the form of items and positive relations with the Circle Mages (which is probably the most impactful reward).

And Sa'Hrul is really weak. You can beat him with apprentice's starting stack of units in almost all cases (not really recommended since you might lose some of them, but it's possible). The other Demon Lords are tougher.

[easytarget]

I'm not terribly impressed by this and don't see how it presents interesting choices for the player but instead throws a penalty looming over the head of new players right from the start of a campaign before they even know how to play or understand the significance of what they're facing. They develop a character who is then yanked away permanently from them.

Feels to me like sucker punch game design and reminds me of cheap jump scares in movies.

Since you can turn this specific event off that's of course what I do.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by sarouman:

though it's obviously not very clear.

is this what they call an oxymoron statement like jumbo shrimp?

[Lazyking]

That event is aweful. Im considering disabeling the DLC

[Wuorg]

You really have a very long time to deal with the demon. The game could certainly make the stakes more clear. On my first interaction with it, I thought there might be some kind of trade-off benefit to letting the clock run out (due to the wording of the event), but there isn't at all.

[deadsanta]

Originally posted by Lazyking:

That event is aweful. Im considering disabeling the DLC

It's shocking once it happens, but then if you look at the timer (on the effects+status page of the apprentice unit) you get 60 turns to get it done, which is happening at like what, turn 90? By that point you can utterly smoke that guy unless you are getting creamed by high difficulty, in which case congrats, you are getting challenged in a 1p by AI!

[alation13]

The demon lord is not that hard on balanced. I did get lucky with the research for the corrupted altar to become available very early in the game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3315752636

I did get a shock when both the demon and a doppelganger teleported to either side of my apprentice though.

[Obsidian Shadow]

666

[alation13]

Originally posted by Obsidian Shadow:

666

I killed another one of the Demon Lords and even though he was different (seemed way more powerful) he also had a strength of 666.

[Kaysoky]

You can probably tell by the specific number chosen, but the power levels on Demon Lords aren't entirely meant to indicate their strength :D